56-59 unit 7

Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM)

//A measurement of gender equality that includes the proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments, the percentage of women in economic decision-making positions, and women’s versus men’s share of earned income

Gender parity

//A way of documenting progress toward gender equality using measures such as relative access to education, average incomes for women versus men, and workforce participation

microloan

//A very small loan to poor people with little income or collateral intended to help them establish or expand a small business

Mercantilism

//A theory of trade stating that each country strives to export more than it imports in order to accumulate wealth

Protectionism

//Trade rules that restrict imports in order to protect domestic industries

Absolute advantage

//A nation’s ability to produce a good or service more efficiently than another nation

Comparative advantage

//A country’s ability to produce one product much more efficiently than it can produce other products within its economy

Complementarity

//A measure of how well one country’s export profile matches another country’s import profile

Transnational corporation

//A firm with the power to coordinate and control operations in more than one country, even if it does not own those operations

Competitive advantage

//A firm’s relative ability to outperform other transnational corporations (TNCs) in its industry

Neoliberalism

//A range of pro-market and anti-government positions on the economy, such as reducing government ownership and regulation and promoting privatization and market-based solutions

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

//International organization that seeks to foster global monetary cooperation, achieve financial stability, facilitate international trade, and promote sustainable economic growth

World Bank

//An international financial organization that provides funding and expertise to promote sustainable economic growth in developing countries

World Trade Organization (WTO)

//An international organization that regulates trade among 184 member states, providing a framework for negotiating trade agreements and resolving trade disputes

Free-trade agreements

//A treaty between two or more countries that reduces tariffs and promotes foreign investment

Tariff

//Tax on imported goods and services

Customs unions

//A free-trade agreement among two or more member countries, combined with a single, common external trade policy for nonmembers

Mercosur

//Spanish acronym for the Southern Common Market, a South American customs union that includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay as its full members

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries

//An intergovernmental organization created to coordinate and unify petroleum policies among member countries

Trade embargo

//An official ban on trade with a specific country or of a specific good

Financial market

//Marketplace where financial instruments are traded; stock markets, bond markets, and foreign exchange markets are all financial markets

Debt crisis

//Occurs when a government’s debts exceed its tax revenues to the point that it cannot meet its loan payments

Import substitution industrialization (ISI)

//An economic development policy intended to replace imported goods with domestically produced goods as a way to spur industrialization and reduce dependence on other nations

Fordism

//The economic and social arrangement based on the mass production of standardized goods, high labor union membership rates, stable and full-time manufacturing employment, and high factory wages that enable mass consumption

Corporate disinvestment

//A process in which companies stop investing in factory construction, equipment, and improvement and begin selling off assets, such as machinery, buildings, and land

Offshoring

//The relocation of manufacturing and support services from one country to another

Outsourcing

//The transfer of part of a firm’s internal operations to a third party

Deindustrialization

//The decline, and sometimes complete disappearance, of employment in the manufacturing sector in the core’s industrial centers

Special economic zone (SEZ)

//Specific area within a country’s borders where business and trade laws are different from those in the rest of the country

Export processing zone (EPZ)

//Industrial zone with special incentives to attract foreign investment to places where imported materials undergo processing or assembly before being re-exported

Free-trade zone (FTZ)

//Specially designated duty-free area that provides warehousing, storage, and distribution facilities for goods intended for trade or reexport

New international division of labor

//The spatial shift of manufacturing from developed countries to developing countries, including the global scaling of labor markets and industrial sites

Post-Fordism

//The shifts from manufacturing centers to spatially dispersed production sites, from standardized mass production to specialized batch production, and from a permanent workforce to temporary and contract workers

Just-in-time manufacturing

//The production of small batches of goods as needed by customer demand

High-technology industry

//An industry that develops and uses the most advanced technologies available and has the highest levels of research and development

Agglomeration economies

//Occur where firms cluster spatially in order to take advantage of geographic concentrations of skilled labor and industry suppliers, specialized infrastructure, and ease of face-to-face contact with industry participants

Multiplier effects

//The creation of new business and jobs in other industries as the result of investment in a different industry

Growth pole

//Geographically pinpointed center of economic activity organized around a designated industry, commonly in the high-tech sector

Sustainable development

//Development that meets present consumption needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their consumption needs

Resource depletion

//The consumption of natural resources faster than they can be replenished

Environmental pollution

//The contamination of the physical (air, water, earth) and biological components of the environment to the point that normal functions are negatively affected

Point source pollution

//Any single identifiable source from which contaminants are discharged, such as a pipe or smokestack

Nonpoint source pollution

//Contamination originating from multiple, diffuse sources

Climate change

//A long-term shift in global or regional climate patterns

Cogeneration

//Producing two forms of energy from one fuel

Carbon neutrality

//Achieving zero CO2 releases through a combination of emissions reduction and carbon removal

Carbon offsets

//Processes that remove or sequester (store) carbon from the atmosphere to make up for CO2 emissions elsewhere

Ecotourism

Travel to natural areas of ecological value in support of conservation efforts and socially just economic development